What is a logo?
It's the pretty picture on your website that tells people what your business is called, right? Well yes, but there is so much more to a logo than just being an attractive symbol. It is a unique mark that sets you apart from your competitors and lets customers know who you are and what you stand for.
I'm passionate about logos and branding – I could talk for hours on the subject… but I won’t. Phew!
What I will do though, is outline a few simple dos and don'ts, when it comes to standing out in a visually crowded market-place.
Can we get one thing straight? A logo is not a brand!
Your brand is the way you do business, your vision, your mission, your customer service, your people as well as your tone of voice, messaging, and the way you communicate through all of your visual identity.
A logo is a symbol usually made up with words, pictures and colour that identifies an organisation. It is a hugely important part of a brand's visual identity and should be unique to that business, creating a professional, reliable and trustworthy image that should engage the viewer emotionally.
When we think of a certain brand we picture the logo. Think Coca Cola, McDonalds, Nike. These are typical examples, regularly used when talking about this sort of thing, and for good reason. Love them or hate them, their brand is strong and their logos immediately spring to mind.
What to consider when thinking about creating a logo?
So, you've got an idea for a business and you've thought of a name. Now you'll need a logo.
It should be unique, simple and easily recognisable – our brains tend to discard unnecessary detail – allowing for quick identification. If it is easily identified, then it is more likely to be remembered.
It should be adaptive and responsive across all channels – clear enough to be reproduced in size and scale – and work on your website, business card, digital and printed collateral as well as perhaps large format print, signage, clothing and vehicles.
Do you want the logo to be fun and energetic, solid and reliable or soft and caring? This of course, will depend upon the business itself. Understanding the business, it's personality, brand goals and target market is key to creating a logo that communicates well.
Design Principles – Dos and Don'ts
Of course, boundaries should be pushed and rules are made to be broken (sometimes) but all good designers, regardless of personal taste, style and practice will stick to a set of design principles that quite simply, just work.
DON'T
Add too much detail
Use too many fonts
Be too literal
Capitalise handwritten or script fonts
DO
Sketch your logo first
Begin in black and white
Use colour and contrast wisely
Blend typography
Think about hierarchy and visual emphasis
Allow the elements to 'breath'
Use negative space
Align elements
Lets talk a little about resolution and filetypes
All good designers will save and supply your logo in various formats so that they work for you in any situation and in all resolutions.
Resolution - refers to the quality of an image.
DPI - refers to dots per inch. The more dots filling an area, the better the quality will be.
All logos used digitally on websites, social media, basically anything on screen will be 72dpi and a JPG or PNG file. Generally these can't be scaled and should not be used for print. Logos used for business cards, brochures, leaflets and any printed material should be 300dpi and saved as an EPS or PDF. If created in a program such as Adobe Illustrator, they will be a vector graphic and will be scalable in size.
Your business may only be small for now, but you'll want to make sure you have the right files on hand later down the line as you grow – who knows where your logo may be appearing in the future!
Now that you're armed with all the information, you could simply design your own logo using one of the countless logo generating apps, quickly and easily creating a generic looking logo that works well enough on screen. It may be inexpensive but you're simply buying a product.
Or... you could build a relationship with a designer, who offers a complete service, will take the time to get to know your brand and work with you to create something unique and bespoke for your business.
As you can see, there’s more to a logo than simply looking great on your Facebook page, more than simply choosing a nice swirly font in your favourite colour, and such an important element of your branding to get right. Your logo should be working hard for you, in fact I would go so far as to say that your business depends upon it!
If you'd like to chat about your logo and branding then please feel free to drop me a line at hello@jobillingcreative.co.uk or call me on 07594 245 381.
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